Is MonoTouch now banned on the iPhone? [closed]

Answer 1

Update:

New changes to sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 have made MonoTouch (and all other cross compilers/languages/etc) perfectly acceptable on the iPhone. See Apple's announcement

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Miguel doesn't seem to think so. See the tweet and Miguel's response. Lets not overreact here and say that Monotouch is dead, or stop developing with Monotouch until some clarifications have been made by all parties involved.

That said I would definitely start putting the heat on Apple for such draconian development policies. Things like this, and the nebulous process that is the approval policy of iphone/ipad/touch apps should strike fear into the hearts of developers. What's next, their license stating that the only Ad platform you are allowed to use is iAd? Not allowing the distribution of free apps without iAd? Slowly raising Apple's share of the revenue of app sales? As developers in a locked down eco-system, we are kind of frogs in a pot of hot water, and Apple is slowly turning up the heat. Now is the time to explore other mobile platforms, because as they get better, the main thing holding people to the Apple platform is lack of applications on other platforms.

Answer 2

As of today, Section 3.3.1 of the Apple iOS Developer Program License has now been reverted to the old text:

3.3.1 Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.

Apple has released an official statement on the license changes.

This would indicate that it is now permissible to use MonoTouch.

Answer 3

I hope Apple gets trounced for this ridiculous policy. Arrogance is not attractive and generally bad for business. This is one of the reasons I haven't started iPhone development.

Most hardware and OS providers are happy to have additional tools and audience to write to their platform. Apple is taking the stance that its (braindead) tools are the only game in town.

The "Big Brother" ad from 1984 is more and more relevant...

EDIT

The way it is written also seems to imply that if I wrote a .net to objective C/apple translator that the code isn't acceptable because the original code was not objective c. That is ludicrous (and unenforceable.)

Answer 4

From what the license agreement says MonoTouch apps will clearly not be allowed in the AppStore.

The more interesting question is though, against which framework / apps will they enforce it? They will also have to write automated tests to check if the apps were written natively or not, because the people who approve the apps won't have the time / skills to do it for every single app. These apps won't put a sticker there 'Using MonoTouch / Flash'.

Answer 5

Just adding my 2 cents. It seems that after reading this part: (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited) there is nothing to discuss. They have expressed them unambiguously. Not only they are banning MonoTouch and Unity3d, it seems they are also banning Titanium Framework. However, after reading this article, i found myself really confused. I am not familiar with US laws, but is it legal? I mean, aren't they breaking some anti-monopoly laws?

Besides all of this, i can't understand their motivation. Not only will they partly lose a developers interest, they will also lose a developers respect, i think.

Answer 6

Update -

This changed recently. MonoTouch should no longer conflict with the agreement. Any statements below are purely historical!

Yes, it seems pretty clear from their license agreement now that if the original application is written in C# then it would be violating the license:

...Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine...

They even hammer it in a little further:

Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited

Kind of a bummer, MonoTouch and the Flash CS5 -> iPhone converter are very cool.